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Houston's death had no signs of 'foul play'

Coroner says famous US singer died in bathtub with no signs of trauma but autopsy results may not come out for weeks.

13 Feb 2012 14:19 GMT

Acclaimed US singer Whitney Houston died in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles amid no signs of trauma or foul play, local coroners have said.

Police detectives have asked for Houston's autopsy results not to be released immediately, Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter told reporters on Monday.

Officials are not ruling out any cause of death until they have toxicology results, which may take weeks to obtain.

Beverly Hills Police Lieutenant Mark Rosen said his agency may release more results on Monday.

Fans mourn a star

Houston's fans have gathered across the country to remember the fallen star, as some of the world's top entertainers paid tribute to her legacy at the annual Grammy music awards in Los Angeles, California.

From the Newark, New Jersey church where a young Houston once sang gospel to the Beverly Hilton Hotel in California, where she died early on Saturday, fans assembled to remember her through her biggest hits.

The music community also paid tribute to the record-breaking artist over the weekend.

At her long-time mentor Clive Davis' annual pre-Grammy gala - the event Houston was preparing for at the time of her death - singer Alicia Keys referred to both artists being mentored by Davis before singing one of Houston's early hits on the eve of the awards show.

'Death in the family'

At music's biggest night itself, fellow music icon LL Cool J led the crowd in the Staples Center in a prayer.

Whitney Houston

Won two Emmy Awards and six Grammy Awards, along with hundreds of other honours in her lifetime

The 1985 debut album, Whitney Houston, was the best-selling debt album by a woman artist at the time of its release

First acting role was the lead in The Bodyguard (1992)

Sold more than 200 million albums worldwide

"There is no way around this. We've had a death in our family," he said, adding: "The only thing that feels right is to begin with a prayer for a woman who we loved, for our fallen sister."

Later in the show, singer Jennifer Hudson - who was presented with a Grammy by Houston in 2009 - gripped the audience in silence with a rendition of "I Will Always Love You," the smash hit from Houston's film "The Bodyguard".

The Los Angeles County coroner's office completed an autopsy on the 48-year-old singer's death on Saturday evening, but the results will not be made public for another six to eight weeks.

County officials, however, reiterated that there appeared to be no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death.

"At this time... there are no signs of foul play," Ed Winter, the assistant chief coroner for Los Angeles County, told reporters shortly before the Grammys show began.

The death of the six-Grammy winner, who had battled drug addiction, cast a dark shadow over the 54th edition of the music awards in the city on Sunday. Houston had planned to attend the ceremony.

But police were called to the Beverley Hilton hotel on Saturday afternoon local time and found the 48-year-old singer unresponsive. She was pronounced dead 30 minutes later, after hotel security and rescue officials failed to resuscitate her.

Al Jazeera's Rob Reynolds, reporting from Los Angeles, said that Houston had been seen at public events in good form, and had been working on post-production for the film Sparkle in recent weeks, a film which she was producing.